Bunny Brown and His Sister Sue in the Big Woods Part 10

"Did your train run away?" asked Mrs. Brown, not paying much attention to the Indian at first, as it was common to see them around the camp, whither they came to beg for sc.r.a.ps of food, the remains of a ham bone, and such things.

"Did your train really run away, Bunny?" asked Mrs. Brown. "Oh, Bunny, you've been in the dirt!"

"Yes, and it's a good thing he didn't get _wet_," went on Sue, for both children always told everything that happened to them as soon as they got back home. Only sometimes it took a little longer than usual to think up all the happenings. "He almost rolled into the lake, Bunny did."

"You did!" cried Mrs. Brown. "How did it happen?"

"Oh, I made the track straight, instead of in a circle, and the train got to going so fast in a straight line that it ran off the end of the rails downhill. I ran after it, but I slipped and rolled. Then the train rolled into the water, but only a teenty little way, and Eagle Feather got it out. Wasn't he good?"

"He was indeed, and we must thank him," said Mrs. Brown. "But did he stop you from going into the water also, Bunny?"

"No, Momsie. I stopped myself by catching hold of a tree. But I almost went in. I'd have gone in after my train anyhow, if Eagle Feather hadn't got it for me."

"Thank you, Eagle Feather," said Mrs. Brown. "I must give you some of the nice soup I have made. The papooses will like it."

"Squaw like it, and Indian like it heap, too," said Eagle Feather.

"Yes, but the squaw, as you call your wife, and the little children, must have some first."

"Oh, yes. Give 'em milk too, if so he can find cow."

"Oh, is your cow lost? And was it she who poked her head in our tent last night?" asked Mrs. Brown.

"I think it was, Mother," said Bunny. "She had two crumpled horns, and the one the farmer owns has only one. Sue and I are going to help Eagle Feather find his cow."

"Well, you mustn't go very deep into the big woods," said Mrs. Brown.

"But then I think the cow can't have wandered far, for there is good feeding near where Uncle Tad tied her."

"You show me where cow broke loose, I find her," said Eagle Feather.

"Indian hab heap good medicine to find cow."

"Medicine? You don't need medicine to find a cow," said Mrs. Brown. "You might need medicine if your cow were sick, but she didn't look sick when she poked her nose into the tent."

"Cow no sick, but heap good medicine find her all same," replied Eagle Feather, smiling.

"He means our toys, Mother," said Bunny. "He called my train of cars and Sue's doll heap good medicine."

"Oh, I see!" exclaimed Mrs. Brown. "It's a sort of charm. But you mustn't believe in that sort of nonsense, children, even if some of the more ignorant Indians do."

"But, Mother," asked Bunny, "mayn't I show Eagle Feather how my toy train works? He didn't see it, and I know he'd like to. Mayn't I show him the train and how it runs?"

"Oh, yes, I suppose so. But be quick about it, if you are going to help him hunt for his cow."

Bunny relaid the track, in a circle this time, so the engine and cars would not roll off to where they were not intended to go. Meanwhile Sue flashed the eyes of her Teddy Bear so Eagle Feather could see them. He looked very closely at the toy, but when Bunny had his train on the circular track, the batteries connected, and had started the little locomotive pulling the cars after it, the eyes of Eagle Feather grew big with wonder.

"Great medicine!" he exclaimed. "Heap big powerful. Indian do anything with that medicine. Bring him along an' soon find cow."

"Oh, I couldn't bring my whole train, the track and the batteries into the woods," said Bunny. "But I'll take one car with me."

"Well, maybe one car help some," said the Indian. "Little gal bring baby bear whose eyes light up same as in dark by campfire."

"Yes, I'll bring Sallie Malinda," promised Sue. "That's my Teddy's name," she explained.

"Well, don't lose your toys," cautioned their mother, "and don't be gone too long, for dinner will soon be ready. And, Eagle Feather, don't forget to come back for the soup," she concluded.

"Me no forget," said the Indian.

Then with the children he went to the place where Uncle Tad had tied the stray cow, and from where she had broken loose. That was the starting place for the search.

Mrs. Brown was not at all nervous about letting Bunny and Sue go away with the Indian, Eagle Feather. All the farmers for miles around spoke of his honesty and kindness. He owned several farms, as well as horses and cows. He did business with the white people, and all of them trusted him. Mr. Brown often bought things from him.

Bunny, carrying one car of his train, and Sue, her Teddy bear to which she had given such a queer name, led the Indian to the tree to which Uncle Tad had tied the cow in the night. There was the broken end of the rope still tied around the tree, but there was no cow on the other end of it.

"She go this way," said Eagle Feather, pointing off toward the west.

"How can you tell?" asked Bunny.

"See feet marks in soft dirt--see broken branches where cow go through--no look for path," and the Indian pointed to several branches broken from the bushes through which the cow had forced her way in the darkness after having broken loose from the tree.

"Come on, Sue!" called Bunny, as he followed the Indian, carrying the toy train in his hand.

"I'm coming," answered his sister. "But the thorns catch in the fuzzy wool of Sallie Malinda and scratch her. I've got to go slower than you."

"All right--we wait for you," said Eagle Feather, who had heard what Sue said. "No hurry from little gal," he said to Bunny. "Maybe her medicine better for finding cow as yours, though me think yours very much stronger medicine. Maybe we see--byemby." That was the way Eagle Feather said "Bye-and-bye."

Bunny and the Indian went on slowly through the big woods, the red man stopping every now and then to look down at the ground for marks of the cow's hoofs, and also looking at the sides for signs of the broken branches.

"Cow been here," he would say every little while. "Soon we catch 'er.

Medicine heap good. Indian like!"

"You'd better get yourself a toy train," said Bunny.

"No got money," returned Eagle Feather. "Like 'em very much for boy papoose when he grow big so like you."

"Maybe I'll be tired of mine by that time and give it to him," said Bunny.

"Too nice. You no get tired long while," said the Indian. "Heap big medicine. Come, Sue, we wait for you."

As the Indian and Bunny waited they heard, off in the distance, the lowing of a cow.

"Hark!" cried Bunny.

"That my cow," said Eagle Feather. "I tell you boy and gal medicine heap good--find cow soon. Over this way! Soon hab cow now!"

He hurried on ahead so fast that Bunny and Sue could hardly keep up with him, but they managed to do so and, a little later, they saw, in a little glade among the trees, a cow with a broken rope trailing from her neck. She had two twisted, or crumpled, horns.

"Oh, that's the cow that was in our tent!" cried Sue. "I'd know her anywhere."